Dem senator refuses to address relationship with founder of Soros-funded ‘propaganda’ news network

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy is refusing to address reports he is romantically involved with a former Democratic political operative running a Soros-funded media network masquerading as independent media.

Murphy, who recently announced separation from his wife after nearly two decades together, was recently photographed having a cozy dinner with Tara McGowan, the founder and publisher of Courier Newsroom, a progressive media group that has received millions of dollars in funding from liberal mega-donors such as George Soros.

Fox News Digital recently asked Murphy on Capitol Hill about his involvement with McGowan. 

“I’m not going to talk about that,” Murphy responded.

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Sen. Chris Murphy and Tara McGowan. (Getty Images)

McGowan has long held ties with the Democratic Party, working on former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign before serving in top positions at Priorities Action USA, a Democratic super PAC, and ACRONYM, a Democrat-focused digital advocacy group.

The Murphy-tied strategist founded Courier Newsroom, a left-leaning media group that has received millions from the Fund for Policy Reform, an advocacy group founded by Soros.

In 2021, Gabby Deutch, who the Washington Post described as “the Washington correspondent for NewsGuard, a New York-based nonpartisan organization that reviews news sites to combat misinformation,” penned an op-ed criticizing Courier Newsroom as a “political operation” and argued it is “exploiting the widespread loss of local journalism to create and disseminate something we really don’t need: hyperlocal partisan propaganda.”

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George Soros, founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, arrives for a meeting in Brussels on April 27, 2017. (Oliver Hoslet)

Fund for Policy Reform provided Courier Newsroom with three grants totaling $5 million in 2021 and 2022 to “support its non-partisan journalism, which aims to further the common good and general welfare of U.S. communities by providing access to information,” its grant database shows, as previously reported by Fox News Digital. 

McGowan was also in close quarters with former President Joe Biden’s administration, visiting the Biden White House nearly 20 times by April 2024.

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Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a news conference with former Education Secretary Arne Duncan and education advocates at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Feb. 13, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)

Murphy and McGowan were spotted getting close at a Washington, D.C., watering hole earlier this month, according to the New York Post, with a source telling the outlet the pair was getting “cutesy.”

The outlet reported that Murphy is still married to his wife, Washington, D.C., lawyer Cathy Holahan, and that neither has filed for divorce in Connecticut nor Washington, D.C. The couple did announce they were separating in November, shortly after Murphy won re-election. 

Murphy has positioned himself as one of the most prominent Democrat critics of President Donald Trump, which has caused many to speculate he is interested in a run for the White House in the future.

“Chris Murphy Emerges as a Clear Voice for Democrats Countering Trump,” a recent New York Times headline read with an article that was reposted on Murphy’s website. 

Fox News Digital reached out to McGowan for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Cameron Cawthorne contributed to this post.